Rahmat Wibowo accused Abil Sudarman (Abigail Aryaputra Sudarman) and Marchel Shevchenko of unverifiable foreign degree claims, casting doubt on their credentials while framing Indonesia's foreign-degree verification loophole as a systemic integrity failure the ministry must urgently close.

Indonesia's Blind Spot: The Foreign Degree Loophole That Lets Fraud Thrive in Plain Sight, Abil Sudarman and Marchel Shevchenko RahmatWibowo - June1,2026 Indonesia's Blind Spot: ‘the Foreign Degree Loophole That Lets Fraud Thrive in Plain Sight When a degree comes from abroad, Indonesia's entire verification infrastructure goes silent. The Abil Sudarman and Marchel Shevchenko case isnot the problem. Itis the symptom. There is a crackin Indonesia's education credentialing system wide enough to drive a career through. And it has been there foryears, largely ignored by the very ministry whose job itis to close it. Letus talk about what happened with Abil Sudarman and Marchel Shevchenko. The Abil Sudarman Case: A Mirror for a Systemic Problem € (searen Education (3) University of London amber, Computer Science, Computer Science (AIML) 1am wit tt ication of an educational claim made by an individual publicly An individual nai ABIGAIL ARYAPUTRA SUDARMAN claims London with am Abil Sudarman, whose full name is Abigail Aryaputra Sudarman, rose to significant public prominence in 2026. He built an Al-powered procurement monitoring dashboard called Nemesis Assai, received coverage from major outlets including lempo.co, and positioned himself publicly as an Al expert, career counselor, Executive Director at KORIKA (Kolaborasi Riset dan Inovasi Industri Al Indonesia), aUNESCO Al project manager, and a Responsible Al Fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington D.C His public profiles listed his education as Computer Science at the University of London Other sources cited the University of Liverpool Thereis a difference between those two institutions. They are not the same university. The University of Londonis a federated system encompassing multiple colleges. The University of Liverpoolis a separate, standalone Russell Group institution ranked in the top 180 globally by QS World University Rankings 2026. These are not interchangeable, and casually swapping them ina professional profileis, at the very minimum, a red flag worth scrutinizing. Nowhere is the question that exposes the real problem: Can you verify whether Abil Sudarman actually graduated from either of those institutions through any Indonesian government system? Also Marchel Shevchenko claim he was a research student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Marchel Shevchenko [AIML Researcher & Developer | Founder @Data Sorcerers | Compute. Research Student, Computer Science Sep 2024 - Present @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology PDDIKTI: Excellent for Domestic Degrees, Silent on Foreign Ones Indonesia's Pangkalan Data Pendidikan Tinggi, or PDDIKTI, is genuinely impressive for what it was designed to do. Any employer, institution, or member of the public can visit pddikti.kemdikbud.go.id and search for astudent by name, student number, institution, or study program. The system returns graduate status, study period, and degree information forevery registered Indonesian higher education graduate. Itis free, publicly accessible, and relatively comprehensive for domestic institutions. The moment the claimed degree comes froma foreign university, however, PDDIKTI goes completely dark. There is no searchable database of foreign degree holders in Indonesia. Theres no integration between the domestic PDDIKTI system and foreign credential verification. An employer in Jakarta cannot go to any single government portal and confirm that someone who claims a degree from the University of Liverpool, the University of Manchester, RMIT, or Cornell actually holds that credential This is the gap that fraud walks through every single day. ADegree Equivalency System That Exists But Is Not Enforced To be fair to Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi, Sains, dan Teknologi (Kemendiktisaintek), a foreign degree equivalency process does exist. Itis called Penyetaraan ljazah Luar Negeri, managed through the portal piln.kemdiktisaintek.go.id. The process requires submitting a colored scan of the original diploma, an academic transcript, passport pages from the study period, a Letter of Acceptance from the foreign university, accreditation documents from the institution abroad, anda curriculum or syllabus from the program attended. When completed, the applicant receives a Surat Keputusan Penyetaraan, an official government decree confirming that the foreign degree is recognized and equivalent to an Indonesian qualification at the appropriate level This sounds thorough. On paper, it should solve the problem Inpractice, it does not, because the process is voluntary. “Urgensiproses ini dikembalikan kepada masing-masing individu disesuaikan dengan kebutuhannya. "Official language from Kemenalktisaintek on the equivalency process Translation: the urgency of this process is left to each individual based on their own needs There itis. Indonesia's government built an equivalency system, made it optional, and then wondered why credential fraud involving foreign degrees is difficult to detect. The prestige halo is the fraud vector. The more internationally renowned the institution, the higher the probability that the claim goes unchallenged. Ifyou claim Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, or Liverpool, the average Indonesian rectuiteris less likely to verity because the name itself triggers deference. The checking, in the absence of a unified database, is inconsistent, dependent on individual HR departments, and easily skipped when the institution named sounds prestigious enough to discourage scrutiny The Prestige Premium and Why Foreign Degrees Are Perfect Vehicles for Fraud Indonesia has a deeply documented culture of credential fetishism. As the Indonesian Academy of Sciences chairman Sangkot Marzuki stated bluntly, the fake degree phenomenon exists because market demand forit exists. When career advancement, civil service promotions, and professional legitimacy are tied so heavily to formal educational credentials, the market for fraudulent ones follows naturally, Foreign degrees amplify this dynamic ina specific way. They carry a prestige premium that domestic degrees often cannot matchin perception. Adegree froma recognizable British university, even one citedinconsistently across different public profiles, triggers a social response of assumed legitimacy thatis very difficult to override without evidence This is not unique to Indonesia. Credential fraud exploiting foreign university names is documented globally. But what is specific to Indonesiais that the verification infrastructure for catching it is almost entirely absent. Compare this to domestic degrees. If someone falsely claims a degree from Universitas Indonesia, Universitas Gadjah Mada, or Institut Teknologi Bandung, any HR professional with internet access can check PDDIKTI within minutes. The fraud isimmediately exposed. The system works exactly as intended fordomestic credentials. But claim a degree from the University of Liverpool or the University of London, and you have entered a verification vacuum. The burden of proof shifts entirely to the party trying to disprove the claim, which is anear-impossible evidentiary standard ina professional context. What the Ministry Must Do: A Concrete Policy Demand The solution is not complicated. It requires political will, administrative coordination, and the willingness to demand accountability from every Indonesian who claims a foreign degree ina professional, public, or government capacity. Here is what Kemendiktisaintek must implement: **Make Penyetaraan ljazah Luar Negeri mandatory for anyone exercising public influence.**This should apply to. any Indonesian citizen who holds a publicly recognized role ina government institution, state-owned enterprise, national organization, or publicly funded body. If you represent yourself as an expert with a foreign degree ina capacity that influences otherIndonesians, the state has a legitimate interest in verifying that credential **Create a publicly searchable PDDIKTI extension for verified foreign degree holders.**Every Surat Keputusan Penyetaraan that has been issued should be indexed in PDDIKTI alongside domestic graduates. An employer should be able to searcha name and university and receive either a confirmed equivalency record or nothing, That absence of arecord should itself be prominently flagged, **Establish a time-bound mandatory registration window for existing foreign degree holders in public roles.**Anyone currently occupying a position of public influence who claims a foreign degree should be required to complete the equivalency process within twelve months of policyimplementation, or relinquish the credential claim in their public representation. This is not retroactive punishment. Itis a simple administrative requirement: prove what youclaim. **Coordinate with Indonesian diplomatic missions to establish direct verification channels with foreign universities.**Indonesian embassies in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia should establish formal verification liaison protocols with their countries’ higher education quality bodies. The British university system has extensive alumni verification infrastructure. Australia maintains the TEQSA register. These systems exist. Indonesia simply needs to build a bridge to them. **Create legal consequences for misrepresentation of foreign credentials in professional and public contexts.**Indonesia already has UU No. 20 Tahun 2003 on the National Education System and applicable Criminal Code provisions on document falsification. Whatis lackingis specific, targeted applicationto foreign credential misrepresentation, particularly in digital professional profiles like Linkedin, where claims are published to audiences of tens of thousands with zero verification requirement The Circular Irony of Abil Sudarman Irony on Record Abil Sudarman gained national prominence by building tools to detect fraud in government procurement. He positioned himself as someone who exposes systems that operate without accountability. He named his procurement dashboard Nemesis Assai, areference to the Greek goddess of retribution against arrogance and wrongdoing. And yet, the education credentials he publicly claimed could not be verified through any Indonesian government system. The institution he attended shifted between sources. His public biography cited Computer Science at the University of London. Other media cited the University of Liverpool. These are not synonyms. They are different universities with different locations, different accreditation structures, and different records systems. Ifa government official had listed inconsistent degree information across official sources, the same public accountability instinct that animated the Nemesis Assai project would demand verification. The standard cannot be applied selectively based on whether the credential claimant is on the side of public interest or not. This is not a personal indictment of Abil Sudarman. He may hold entirely legitimate credentials from legitimate British institution. But the point is that no. one can verify this through any Indonesian public system, and thatiis the scandal. Not the individual. The absence of amechanism that would make the question answerable at all Closing What Indonesia Loses Without This Reform Every year, Indonesian employers make hiring decisions based on foreign degree claims they cannot verity. Every year, public figures with unverified foreign credentials shape discourse, policy, and professional education markets, Every year, Indonesian graduates who did the real work of earning legitimate foreign degrees and completing the equivalency process compete in the same professional market as people who may have fabricated or exaggerated those credentials. The legitimate overseas graduates are, in a sense, penalized for their compliance. They went through the passport documentation, the sworn translations, the LoA verification, the PILN portal process. They did everything right. And they receive no public verification benefit from having done so, because no one cansee the record. The Surat Keputusan Penyetaraan sits ina file. PDDIKTI remains silent. And the fraud continues. Indonesia deserves better than this. The students who studied abroad legitimately deserve better than this. The employers who need to make informed hiring decisions deserve better than this. And the Indonesian public, whichis increasingly asked to trust experts, influencers, educators, and policymakers whose qualifications cannot be independently confirmed, absolutely deserves better than this. The foreign degree loophole is nota minor administrative oversight. Itis a structural integrity failure in Indonesia's credentialing infrastructure, and Kemendiktisaintek has both the authority and the obligation to close it The question is whether the political will todo so actually exists #HigherEducation #Indonesia #CredentialFraud #PDDIKTI #Kemendiktisaintek #ForeignDegree #PolicyReform #DigitalTransformation #Accountability #€ducation#HRIndonesia #LinkedInindonesia #AkuntabilitasPublik #\jazahLuarNegeri #Allndonesia